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Canada got the last hurrah at the Celebration of Light Saturday evening, closing the three-night event with a winning display. Canada was declared the winner of the event, with Brazil and China finishing second and third, respectively.

In their six practices after the Olympic break, coach John Tortorella had the team doing lots of shootout work.

“All those shootouts in practice aren’t working, I guess,” Kesler said. “We have to figure out something else. It’s frustrating to lose points on shootouts.”

The Canucks’ shootout struggles could ultimately cost them a playoff spot. Vancouver is now 3-7 this season in shootouts.

“Eddie gave us a chance and made six saves for us and we have to get a goal,” Kesler said. “That’s the bottom line.”

The Canucks failed to build on the momentum gained in Wednesday’s 1-0 win over the visiting St. Louis Blues.

Defensively, they played quite well and probably deserved a better fate. Vancouver outshot the Wild 31-23.

“We gave up one scoring chance in the last 40 minutes of that game,” Tortorella said.

But the Canucks can’t seem to score goals. Their current top line of Alex Burrows and Henrik and Daniel Sedin has yet to score a goal in 2014.

“We have to score,” Kesler said. “That’s the bottom line. We keep saying we’re doing the right things, but at the end of the day we have to produce.”

“I feel for them because they’re trying,” Tortorella said. “You can be frustrated, you can be a lot of different things. But we’re going to stick with them. We’re going to keep putting them on the ice.”

Tortorella lauded his team’s defensive effort and said the group must remain patient.

“We’ve got to keep working at it,” he said. “That’s all we can do to try to solve this — keep our structure defensively and keep working at it, and not get at one another with frustration. We’ve got to stay positive and keep fighting.

“(The glass) is half full for me: three out of four points these first two games. We go to the Heritage game here and get back at it.”

The Canucks meet the Ottawa Senators in that Heritage Classic Sunday afternoon at BC Place Stadium.

Kesler, playing his first game after the Olympics, was one of the better Canucks and scored Vancouver’s only goal. It came shorthanded at 5:19 of the first period and gave Vancouver a 1-0 lead. Chris Higgins forced Wild defenceman Keith Ballard into a turnover at the Vancouver blue-line, Kesler picked up the loose puck and then beat Kuemper short side from the left circle. The goal was Kesler’s 21st of the season.

“Higgy made a great play, fending that guy off and then leaving it for me,” Kesler said. “I beat him short side.”

The Wild got that one back on a power play at 14:12 of the first when Zach Parise beat Lack from the slot. Vancouver defenceman Alex Edler screened his goalie while trying to contain Dany Heatley in front of the net.

Minnesota had a goal disallowed at 8:33 of the first when former Canucks defenceman Ballard put a point shot past Lack. But referee Brad Meier ruled that Wild centre Erik Haula interfered with Lack.

Meier saw something that no one else did as replays indicated Lack was not touched by Haula.

“We need points, so it’s tough,” said Vancouver captain Henrik Sedin. “We played great defensively, should have scored more.”

The one point Vancouver earned moved the Canucks into a tie for eighth spot with the Dallas Stars, who have two games in hand.

“We were all over them in the third period,” said defenceman Chris Tanev. “I think they had three shots all period. We had two or three chances to score, a few more chances in overtime, but the puck’s just not going in for us right now.”

ICE CHIPS: Mick McGeough, the officials supervisor Friday, admitted Meier blew the call on Minnesota’s disallowed goal. “Good screen. Met the criteria for a good goal,” he told Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune in the first intermission.

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